Selected Official Documents of the South African Republic and Great Britain | Page 2

Government of the Transvaal State, through its Delegates,
consisting of Stephanus Johannes Paulus Kruger, President of the said
State, Stephanus Jacobus Du Toit, Superintendent of Education, and
Nicholas Jacobus Smit, a member of the Volksraad, have represented
that the Convention signed at Pretoria on the 3rd day of August 1881,
and ratified by the Volksraad of the said State on the 25th October
1881, contains certain provisions which are inconvenient, and imposes
burdens and obligations from which the said State is desirous to be

relieved, and that the southwestern boundaries fixed by the said
Convention should be amended, with a view to promote the peace and
good order of the said State, and of the countries adjacent thereto; and
whereas, Her Majesty the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, has been pleased to take the said representations
into consideration: Now, therefore, Her Majesty has been pleased to
direct, and it is hereby declared, that the following articles of a new
Convention, signed on behalf of Her Majesty by Her Majesty's High
Commissioner in South Africa, the Right Honorable Sir Hercules
George Robert Robinson, Knight Grand Cross of the Most
Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George, Governor of
the Colony of the Cape of Good Hope, and on behalf of the Transvaal
State (which shall hereinafter be called the South African Republic) by
the above named Delegates, Stephanus Johannes Paulus Kruger,
Stephanus Jacobus Du Toit, and Nicholas Jacobus Smit, shall, when
ratified by the Volksraad of the South African Republic, be substituted
for the articles embodied in the Convention of 3rd August 1881; which
latter, pending such ratification, shall continue in full force and effect.
ARTICLES.
ARTICLE I, II.
(Articles I and II relate entirely to the settlement of the boundary lines
of the Republic.)
ARTICLE III.
If a British officer is appointed to reside at Pretoria or elsewhere within
the South African Republic to discharge functions analogous to those
of a Consular officer, he will receive the protection and assistance of
the Republic.
ARTICLE IV.
The South African Republic will conclude no treaty or engagement
with any State or nation other than the Orange Free State, nor with any
native tribe to the eastward or westward of the Republic, until the same

has been approved by Her Majesty the Queen.
Such approval shall be considered to have been granted if Her
Majesty's Government shall not, within six months after receiving a
copy of such treaty (which shall be delivered to them immediately upon
its completion), have notified that the conclusion of such treaty is in
conflict with the interests of Great Britain or any of Her Majesty's
possessions in South Africa.
ARTICLE V.
The South African Republic will be liable for any balance which may
still remain due of the debts for which it was liable at the date of
Annexation, to wit, the Cape Commercial Bank Loan, the Railway
Loan, and the Orphan Chamber Debt, which debts shall be a first
charge upon the revenues of the Republic. The South African Republic
will moreover be liable to Her Majesty's Government for £250,000,
which will be a second charge upon the revenues of the Republic.
ARTICLE VI.
The debt due as aforesaid by the South African Republic to Her
Majesty's Government will bear interest at the rate of three and a half
per cent. from the date of the ratification of this Convention, and shall
be repayable by a payment for interest and Sinking Fund of six pounds
and nine pence per £100 per annum, which will extinguish the debt in
twenty-five years. The said payment of six pounds and nine pence per
£100 shall be payable half yearly, in British currency, at the close of
each half year from the date of such ratification: Provided always, That
the South African Republic shall be at liberty at the close of any
half-year to pay off the whole or any portion of the outstanding debt.
Interest at the rate of three and a half per cent. on the debt as standing
under the Convention of Pretoria shall as heretofore be paid to the date
of the ratification of this Convention.
ARTICLE VII.

All persons who held property in the Transvaal on the 8th day of
August 1881, and still hold the same, will continue to enjoy the rights
of property which they have enjoyed since the 12th April 1877. No
person who has remained loyal to Her Majesty during the late
hostilities shall suffer any molestation by reason of his loyalty; or be
liable to any criminal prosecution or civil action for any part taken in
connection with such hostilities; and all such persons will have full
liberty to reside in the country, with enjoyment of all civil rights, and
protection for their persons and property.
ARTICLE VIII.